Two New Winners Claim Loot at Knoxville Raceway
Saturday, August 25, 2007
by Bob Wilson - Two new faces graced victory lane at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. Winning feature events were Dion Hindi and Chad Meyer, each grabbing his initial feature event victory here at this central Iowa race track.
Hindi, a World of Outlaws regular who did not travel with that organization to the West Coast, started on the front row and led the distance in the twenty lap event to carry away the $3,000 first place prize money.
When the green dropped on the event, Hindi raced to the cushion as Brian Brown, who started right behind him had enough momentum to try to slide him in turn two. Hindi then out-dragged Brown down the backstretch for the lead with "Brownie" beside and below him. Brown tried to shoot low in turns three and four but again Hindi's momentum gave him the lead as he exited turn four with the lead on lap one.
With the lead secured, Hindi roared around the Knoxville's big half mile on the high cushion as did second running Brown and third running Jack Dover. On lap seven Hindi entered the backmarkers of lap traffic but encountered no problems. One circuit later, Wayne Johnson made a pass of Dover to take third. Dover tried to regain his lost spot and actually did but in the fourth turn of lap nine a bumping incident between those two drivers brought out the red flag when Dover went upside down. Amazingly, Dover was able to repair his mount (only a top wing was damaged) and he reappeared on the track at the tail. Additional problems must have nagged at his machine as he was unable to make up positions and ended up eighteenth.
Once the race went green again, Hindi again pulled away from Brown and the rest of the field. By lap fifteen he enjoyed a two-turn lead. Though he again would encounter lap traffic, this night belonged to Hindi in his self-owned sprinter. In the end he claimed a full chute win over Brown when the checkered flags flew. Johnson claimed third, Billy Alley was fourth and Mark Dobmeier took fifth. Rounding out the top ten finishers were Clint Garner, Bronson Maeschen (who started 20th), Travis Cram, Calvin Landis and Ricky Logan.
The Meyer win came after he took the lead on the second lap from Tim St. Arnold and stayed in front the rest of the way. Right after that lap, the yellow was displayed for John Kearney who had slowed as he exited turn two. Josh Higday, who had started twelfth in the invert, was roaring around the top on the cushion and quickly came upon the hapless Kearney. What looked to be a tense situation saw Higday bounce up and over Kearney's left-rear tire as neither car took a tumble.
Kearney was done for the night but Higday was in trouble with one of his side nerf bars bent and shoved between the right-rear tire and the car's body. Frantic efforts in the work area yielded results as those involved were able to remove the tire, yank the nerf bar off, replace the tire and return Higday to the rear of the field for the restart.
Meyer again led the twenty car field back to green but this restart belonged to Dennis Moore, Jr., who was subbing for Joe Beaver. On this green, Moore zoomed to second as he moved deftly through turns one and two to grab the runner-up spot. Behind him St. Arnold, Bryan Dobesh and John Hall completed the top five running order.
And, that's the way it would stay until lap eleven when Jon Schulz tried to gain the position that Hall held. Contact was made and Hall received the worst of it as he flipped in turn four. He was uninjured but his crumpled sprinter rode the tow hook to the pits.
When the race was restarted again for the last time, Moore was unable to make any headway in his pursuit of Meyer. At the end of 15 laps, Meyer was the victor in his self-owned sprinter and collected $1,250 for his return trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Moore (started 9th) finished second, Dobesh kept himself in the points race by taking third, Schulz was fourth and points leader Higday came from the rear to capture fifth. St. Arnold, Rick Ideus, Brett Mather (started 19th), Russ Hall and Gregg Bakker (started 14th) rounded out the top ten finishers.
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